Where were you on the morning of September 11th, 2001?

For hundreds of workers who managed to escape the World Trade Center complex on Sept. 11, 2001, the two flights of stairs were a cherished symbol. The stairs had led them from the site’s elevated plaza, away from the collapsing buildings and falling debris, to the relative safety of the streets beyond. In the words of one survivor, “They were the path to freedom.”

For preservationists, the stairs were also important artifacts: the last above-ground remnants of the World Trade Center. “[They] will be the most dramatic original piece of the site that will have meaning to generations to come,” Richard Moe, then president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said in 2006, when the group petitioned for the stairs to be kept in place.

Where were you on the morning of September 11th, 2001? For many children too young to remember, or even be born, September 11 means very little. Never Forget Foundation was created to help at-risk students learn how to overcome adversity and challenge using lessons from September 11: family, teamwork, preparedness, respect, and accountability.